DOT IG says CIO needs to keep track of budget

The Transportation Department needs to better account for its CIO's budget and improve oversight of its IT investments and contract services, the department's inspector general said in a report released earlier this month.

In recent years, CIO Dan Matthews' office has assumed more responsibility for overseeing IT investments and project security as well as for managing the voice and data networks at Transportation headquarters. Although the CIO's budget requests more than tripled to $23.4 million in fiscal 2004 from $6.3 million in fiscal 2002, the requests did not adequately describe the activities to be performed with those funds or the expected benefits, the IG said.

The IG recommended that in future budget submissions the CIO disclose all its responsibilities and other sources of funding.

Matthews responded that his office agreed with the recommendations and provided target dates for implementing some of the recommendations.